


This Game Is Mine

by deltanox



Series: I Am End [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Canon, Background Enoshima Junko, Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Canonical Character Death, Character Analysis, Character Study, Dangan Ronpa Spoilers, Despair, Gen, Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Mastermind Shirogane Tsumugi, New Dangan Ronpa V3 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29119362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deltanox/pseuds/deltanox
Summary: They were only characters, after all, and in the grand scheme of things, they weren’t really important— just like those filler anime episodes that everyone skipped and knew were just to block out the actual plot with substance.A brief surface level glimpse of what goes on inside Junko Enoshima the 53rd's head before everything blows down for the last time.
Series: I Am End [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157783
Kudos: 6





	This Game Is Mine

_I am the diva of despair._

_I am Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair._

Brightly painted red lips mouth out well-rehearsed words silently back into the reflection, who smirks back mischievously at her. The girl peers back into the array of monitors that decorate her workspace, some of them lit with the empty hallways of the school, some of them as blank and lifeless as her _friends_ who had died in the previous trials. A casual lift of her hand, and she turns it over to inspect the sharp acrylic nails that adorn each finger.

They were only characters, after all, and in the grand scheme of things, they weren’t _really_ important— just like those filler anime episodes that everyone skipped and knew were just to block out the actual plot with substance. Now _those_ were the parts that left the audience hanging on the edge of their seats, begging for more. 

The _fun, entertaining_ parts.

Mmmhm! She’s worked too hard on this, scripting everything perfectly to a T for maximum ratings, running the simulations tirelessly until each and every interaction was refined to her liking; there was nothing in that she hadn’t personally reviewed at least three times. It’s always been in the details— what kind of cosplayer would she be if she didn’t notice the little things that added up over time?

It was all such a beautiful, lovingly hand-stitched lie, and it was _all hers._ The blonde lets out a dreamy sigh, pressing manicured hands to her face.

_Mine, mine, mine… ! Season 53… **V3!**_

Her mouth turns up into a twisted smile at the memory of the first kill. She was almost sorry her co-survivor from last season was the first to go, but the irony of having Season 52’s beloved winner die first? Deliciously _despairing_. At her hands, nonetheless— but they didn’t need to know that yet. Viewers had sent Team Danganronpa’s inboxes floods of hate mail for his sudden death, but she’d merely watched the little ants outside from her office on the top floor, laughing at the futility of their situation. There was strength in numbers, yes, but sheer strength would not be enough to overcome their blindness to the vicious cycle they’d enslaved themselves to.

The reality was, as much as each trial stirred up more discourse and disillusioned fans vowing to boycott them, at the end of the day, it would bring them right back to where they started, illustrating the very simple concept of supply and demand. 

They _adored_ Danganronpa! 

She wouldn’t let anyone take this chance she’d fought tooth and nail for away, not when that pesky anthropologist had nearly exposed her back in Chapter 1’s trial (she knew that writing him to be so observant would be her downfall, he _definitely_ had to go— what a shame, he had potential), not when she knew the maid was too great of an asset to them in the long run and how the ex-tennis pro was _too good of a target to pass up._

For the magician’s sake (character development!) the artist and aikido master were next, and what better way to kill two birds with one stone than by roping (pun intended) the anthropologist in, too? Payback was sweet, but the views of that episode were sweeter. 

The inventor had been nothing but obligatory fanservice, but even that and slapstick humor had an expiration date. Icy gray-blue eyes roll up in annoyed resignment. Besides, the antics were getting on her nerves, always stealing the camera’s attention away from the _important_ ones. The _curious_ footage reviewers definitely didn’t help, either. 

As for the entomologist… she’d almost gotten attached to his character’s writing. 

Almost. The attachment was just a role for her own character to play, and she’d played it well; she was quite proud of how he’d panned out for Chapter 4. On one hand, it was terribly cliche to write the gentle giant with a hidden dark side (the views, though, think of the views!) but she’d risked it, taking a gamble with originality, hoping that the audience would react accordingly to her twist. 

To her delight, it had paid off, and together, the class sent a confused boy who truly thought he was innocent, up until the very bitter end. Oh… what misery she’d witnessed, but all the better for the grand finale, where they would triumph! It took everything in her to not rush over and reassure her dear shell-shocked protagonist— it was all but for his development, the greater good, see— but boundaries were boundaries. Views had spiked again that day, and for a moment, she thought her heart would burst with happiness, clutching her bed’s blankets.

They _loved_ her work! _Her_ entire season that _she_ was entrusted with! That validation was more than enough to fuel the next stage of her daring plans as the end of Season V3 drew closer and closer. 

Suddenly, the blonde frowns deeply at the next character. The meddlesome supreme leader, who’d managed to defy some of her expectations, almost as if his character had come alive and developed a mind of his own comes to mind. 

**_No, no, no!_** They couldn’t afford that. Not when not when she’d come so far for her precious game— over her _dead body._

She’d punished him and the blindly trusting astronaut dearly for their concocted plan; they’d been nothing more than glorified side characters designed to help the protagonist along, written to die from the start. _Know your place, peasants!_ The girl tosses blonde hair over her shoulder and strikes a pose, admiring how _perfect_ the carbon copy was. 

...Well, not quite. If only she had the crown to accompany it...

Twirling a strand around her finger, she muses on the ones left. Hm, the assassin, as much as she would have liked to axe off (such a bland archetype)… pragmatically, no. Too much potential as a survivor, and admin had already let her push it with the planned number this season. Not to mention she’d already had her love interest taken. _Silly tsundere, thinking that all of that was real,_ the girl thinks with a giggle.

But the cosplayer would have to give credit for trying so hard to deviate from the writing she’d carefully laid out for them. A sad, irritating attempt to break the fourth wall, but if it was in the name of unexpected plot development, she could excuse it. Where was the fun in absolute certainty with these killing games? A little spontaneity here and there never hurt anybody— it always made interactions seem more organic, even if nearly all of it was scripted. Besides, this was her fiction, her world… and who was to say what was reality and what wasn’t? 

All she had to do now was _wait and play her role, reaping the flowers of hope that she’d sowed amongst despair._

_Just wait for everything to pan out, exactly as she’d written it._

Chapter 6 was a culmination of all the sleepless nights, character analysis and designs, running plans through admin… of her entire existence as not just a Team Danganronpa member, but above all, as a cosplayer. A true testament of her talent, the one thing that hadn’t been a part of her concocted web of lies. Life had little to no meaning before she’d joined the production team; she’d been a completely average, _plain_ girl, nothing worth looking at twice.

The cosplayer grins fondly at the memory, sharp as the day it had occurred. She’d gone after school to haunt the usual bookstore, making a beeline for her favorite mangas, but something had caught her attention, stopping her that fateful day. Blue eyes landed on glossy covers, “Danganronpa!” splattered across them in bright neon pink, and she found herself reaching out in a trancelike state, fingers closing around the volume. One paragraph turned into one page, a page into the entire magazine, then it had snowballed into binging the entire store’s collection. 

This was… genius! _Exactly_ what she was missing in her life— this was her calling! From that point on, the girl knew she was destined to end up there, one way or another, at _any cost._ Hours of obsessive research on the company and scoping out competition paid off, as Team Danganronpa had agreed, gracing her workspace with a neatly written acceptance letter one week after her interview. 

They’d seen something in her, but _she wanted more._

She’d painstakingly clawed her way up as a lowly intern (a fangirl’s dream), carrying out grunt work like notes and coffee orders for superiors, but patience tempered the fiery ambition that fueled her. Conversations she’d eavesdropped on grew to welcome and integrate her, scripts that were stowed away when she entered were now presented for her to review… why, look at her now! Creating an entire character for herself, the mastermind of this season, based around plainness, the very trait that she’d been ignored for. 

Well, there was no _ignoring_ her now, was there? The game's finale was nigh, and Junko Enoshima, mastermind of Danganronpa Season V3, had a show to put on. 

Pivoting out of the mastermind’s lair for what she knew would be for the last time, Tsumugi Shirogane hums a nonsensical song to herself, a satisfied smile on her face and a hop in her step. The things she does for her beloved ratings...

_I am Junko Enoshima the fifty-third._

_I am the inevitable._

_I am… end._


End file.
